Baltimore, Sunday Night

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Banzai rarely patrolled Sunday nights, taking the night off to rest and prepare for the upcoming week, but since she'd bailed on patrolling on Friday, it seemed only fair to make up for it tonight instead. Crime around the club and various campuses would be lower, but there were still plenty of drug deals, muggings, and various other, more dangerous crimes for her to stop instead. And it wasn't like Banzai was going to miss spending extra time manhandling drunk idiots into cabs and breaking up fights in alleys over stupid bullshit the participants couldn't even remember four steps away from the club itself.

The Ukranian mafia had all but vanished from the city over the past few months; apparently losing the Butcher was enough to convince them that Baltimore wasn't worth the effort. In a way, Banzai almost missed them; they were good practice for when she'd be going up against the Seventeens in LA eventually. Patrolling around Stanford (if she got in, please God let her get in) probably wasn't going to be all that much effort, so she was already making plans to portal down to LA proper at least once a month to get in a proper patrol.

Spotting Jewels, one of the working girls that was part of Banzai's loose confederation of informants, Banzai swung down from the rooftop to land on light feet nearby. Always good to check in, see if Jewels had heard of anything going down, make sure that no one was bothering her, pass along money and supplies to stay in Jewels' good graces, all that good stuff.

It felt good to get out and patrol. For all her speeches about wanting to do good for the people around her and make the world a better place, Banzai had to admit that the real reason she ran around in rainbows with a bokken on her back and rope darts in her belt was a lot more selfish. What could she say?

She loved this.

Comments

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"CrazySexyCool," Kathy countered. "I'll take 'Creep' and 'Red Light Special' over 'No Scrubs' and 'Unpretty' any day. And that's taking into account how overplayed 'Waterfalls' was, even into the 2000s."

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"No, I'm sorry," Dante said, shaking his head. "If I never have to hear 'Waterfalls' again in my life, it'll still have been a wash. And fuck, Fanmail has shit like 'My Life' and 'I'm Good At Being Bad', too."

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"Oh, I agree with that," Kathy said with a laugh. "And 'I'm Good At Being Bad' is probably the best track on that LP. But I still say CrazySexyCool has better songs overall."

That wasn't a conversation she'd ever expected to have with Dante and she was utterly delighted they were.

"Look at you with all this secret music knowledge locked away. I would have thought that if it didn't have electric guitars, you weren't interested."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Hey, now," Dante protested, shooting her some side-eye. "I listen to a fuckton of EDM."

Not all of which had guitars. By far!

"Also, you're wrong, but what else is new?"

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"Hardly my fault you like to keep yourself locked up tighter than Fort Knox," Kathy said, merrily flipping him off. "You know, if you shared facts like this, I wouldn't be so wrong all the time."

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"You know the important shit already," Dante said, shrugging.

The most important of which he hadn't actually chosen to share at the time, but whatever, that was ages ago. "How's that place look to you?"

He nodded to a small bar up ahead. Didn't look too pretentious or anything, at least.

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Better yet, there was even a small menu taped to the window. Nothing fancy, just a list of burgers, fries, and a couple other salty options that would encourage more drinking.

"Perfect," Kathy said, practically drooling at the promise of a burger. "Definitely way better than continuing to look. The music not an insult to your delicate sensibilities?"

Hope not, because Kathy was already walking inside.

[rebelseekspizza]

As far as Dante could tell, they had the Foo Fighters blaring over the stereo. Not the choice he would've gone with, but it wasn't actively pissing him off. "I can live with it," he said, walking after her. "Stomach calling?"

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"I am going to eat every burger they have in the kitchen," Kathy said with a dreamy smile she usually reserved for sex. "And then send them out to get more."

Dante could have her share of the beer if he wanted, Kathy just wanted a golden mountain of fries.

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah, Dante recognized that look, which was why he couldn't resist a, "Don't forget to beg," as he slid into a booth.

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It was only Kathy's preternatural balance that prevented her from tumbling into the booth at that. "Dante!" she hissed, turning red as she glanced around to see if anyone else heard. "Oh my god, I am going to murder you tonight."

Kathy, you'd pull off outraged better if you weren't fighting off a smile, just sayin'

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Dante grinned at her. "C'mon, Kathy," he said, "Chill the hell out, we're in a bar."

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"You're still an asshole," she told him, dimples undermining her point entirely. "Lucky for you, you're a funny one."

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"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Dante decided. "Thank you."

A server darted their way.

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"Well, half of it was," Kathy began, then turned her attention to the server who was her new very bestest friend. "Hiiiii," she said, grinning up at him. "Two beers, ask him because I don't care what and then we'd like a few things off the menu?"

Specifically, four bacon cheeseburgers, three orders of fries, two orders of onion rings, potato skins, and an order of chili-cheese nachos.

"Could we get the nachos out first?" she asked. "We're a little peckish."

Throwing out 'we' a lot for someone ordering for herself, Kathy.

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"We're gonna need two more burgers," Dante added, "... and two Silver Bullets."

He still had some money left over from last week, right? Yeah. Some.

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The server looked at them like he was half-expecting them to go running out the door as soon as his back was turned, a dine and dash making up in quantity what the bar lacked in expensive foods. "Expecting friends?" he asked.

Kathy just shrugged, giving him another friendly smile, then dug her debit card out of her wallet. "I think we need a card to open a tab at the bar?" she said innocently, not wanting him to spend time dithering over them when he could be getting their order in. "We'll settle up with cash at the end, but let's get one started at least."

Go. Take her money. Bring her food. Compensation in exchange of goods and services, stat!

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante dug around his pocket until he got his wallet, opened it up, and showed a couple of twenties. "Seriously, we want this amount of food. Big eaters."

He threw the guy a wink. Mostly because he could.

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Kathy threw Dante an amused look. If his flirting interfered with getting her food in a timely manner, she'd shank him with a beer bottle.

Not that she was thinking about any possible effect all her smiling might have on the poor guy. That was different. She was just being friendly.

Whether it was the money or the wink or all the smiling, the server relaxed and nodded, giving Kathy a grin and returning Dante's wink. "Then I'll see what I can do about getting you both what you want real quick."

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"Thanks," Dante said, shoving the wallet back into his pocket. He settled back in the booth, stretching his legs out. "Keep forgetting how you just turn into a black hole on nights like these."

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"I might have gone a liiiittle overboard tonight," Kathy confessed. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish everything by myself." In which case, she figured Dante could hoover down the rest. "But I'm starving. Like, it's gone past the point where it hurts and now it's just this dull ache." She mirrored his pose, lounging on her side of the table. "I didn't grab snacks before I left the island and now I'm paying for it."

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"All the superheroing, none of the prep."

Dante nudged at her leg with his foot. It was more an amused tap than anything approaching footsie. "I gotta tell Anders to start sneaking magical Mars bars into your bag or what?"

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Shut up, she wasn't blushing, it was the weird lighting in the bar.

"Does he have magical Mars bars that he's not sharing?" she countered. "Because that's the more important conversation to have."

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"I dunno, I haven't asked him," Dante mused. "But he works at the magic shop, right? On an island full of teenagers?"

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"I think most of the stuff they sell is, like, incense and old books, and newts eyes and stuff," Kathy said, trying to remember the last time she'd stopped by to visit Anders at work. "Definitely no candy bars, which is a severe oversight."

She wanted magic candy, dammit!